The present disclosure relates to the field of automation technology.
In the case of an electromechanical component in an automation system, for example, in the case of a switching device or a protective switching device, the state and the mode of operation of the electromechanical components can change depending on the ambient conditions. The causes of this are, for example, temperature changes, impact oscillations, component wear, contact wear of electrical switching contacts or mechanical wear of valves.
Currently, the prognosis of a service life of an electromechanical component is usually made based on empirical tests. In the process, it is typically assumed that the tested electromechanical components constitute a representative representation of the dispersion of the parameters and that the test results correspond to a statistically expected dispersion. Finally, from the test results, a prognosis is derived based on the wear behavior. In the case of electromechanical components, in particular relays, a Weibull distribution based on experimentally determined support sites has been found to be usable for the wear of switching contacts with regard to a failure time.
According to the determined Weibull distribution, it is then possible to derive a prognosis of the number of switching cycles, which is typically reached by a certain percentage of a population. A disadvantage of this approach is that the prognosis accuracy depends on the number of electromechanical components tested and on the ability of representing the actually occurring dispersion of the parameters. Another disadvantage is that the limit value determined in a concrete case of the use of an electromechanical component is typically set too conservatively. i.e., the maintenance intervals set occur excessively often and too frequently, and, as a result, the electromechanical components become oversized and unnecessarily expensive. Another disadvantage is that a number of electromechanical components in use fail before failure is expected, and consequently malfunctions, errors or even potentially dangerous failures can occur.
Therefore, the aim of the present disclosure is create an efficient design for monitoring an electromechanical component of an automation system.